Readying For Golden Hurricane

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The Vanderbilt men’s basketball returns to the floor after the Thanksgiving break on Saturday when they take on the Tulsa Golden Hurricane out of the American Athletic Conference. The game will begin at 7 p.m. CT, with a live stream of the game airing on SEC Network+. Commodore fans can also tune into the game on the Vanderbilt IMG Radio Network with Tim Bickford and Tim Thompson on WNSR 560 AM and 95.9 FM, and online on VUCommodores.com and the VUCommodores app.

Radio Change For Tulsa Game

Due to the football team’s game at Tennessee earlier in the day, the Commodores’ game with Tulsa will air on WNSR 560 AM/95.9 FM. Tim Bickford will be filling in for Joe Fisher, who will be calling the football game in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Vanderbilt Basketball Quick Hitters

• The Commodores improved to 5-1 on the season after defeating Southeastern Louisiana, 78-70, on Monday night at Memorial Gym, capping a stretch of three games in six days. Junior Maxwell Evans tied a career high with 16 points to lead five Vanderbilt players in double figures. Joining Evans were Scotty Pippen Jr. (15), Aaron Nesmith (14), Saben Lee (12), and Dylan Disu (11).

• Vanderbilt has had at least five players score in double figures in their last two games.

• Nesmith leads the nation and SEC with 4.83 made 3’s per game, 3-point field goal percentage (1st, .527) and scoring (23.3). He is ninth nationally in points per game. Nesmith is also ranked in the top 10 in the SEC in field goal percentage (8th, .575).

• Pippen Jr. was named the SEC Freshman of the Week on Nov. 25 after averaging 17 points, 5.5 assists and 2.5 rebounds per game in two Commodore wins last week over Austin Peay and South Carolina State, respectively. He had a career-high 21 points in the win against Austin Peay and then had a career-high eight assists against South Carolina State. He shot 60 percent (9 of 15) from the field and 55.5 percent (5 of 9) from 3-point range for the week.

• Nesmith tallied a career-high 34 points in an overtime loss at Richmond on Nov. 14. It was the most points by a Vanderbilt player since Shan Foster vs. Miss. State (3/5/08), and the most points by a Vanderbilt player on the road since Billy McCaffrey at Georgia (35, 2/24/93).

• Vanderbilt’s 5-1 start is the Commodores’ best since the 2015-16 campaign, when the team started 5-1. Coach Stackhouse is only the second Commodore first-year coach to begin the season with a 5-1 record or better. All-time wins leader Kevin Stallings began his Vanderbilt career with an 8-0 start in the 1999-2000 season.

• New head coach Jerry Stackhouse is the 28th men’s basketball coach in the history of Vanderbilt basketball. He is the first African American Commodore men’s basketball head coach and is one of two current African American head coaches in the Southeastern Conference (Cuonzo Martin, Missouri).

• As a team, the Commodores are first in the SEC in field goal percentage (.510), threes made (11.5) and 3-point field goal percentage (.406), and second in scoring offense (85.2) and assist-to-turnover ratio (1.2).

• A season ago, no Commodore had more than seven assists in a game. This season, it has been done four times by Saben Lee and once by Scotty Pippen Jr.

• Nesmith was named to the preseason All-SEC second-team by the league’s coaches.

• Saben Lee was one of seven major conference underclassmen in 2018-19 with 400+ points, 100+ rebounds and 100+ assists, and was the only one in the SEC. (Terence Davis and Grant Williams were the only others in the SEC to reach those numbers.)

• The Commodores are one of only three schools (UNLV and Princeton) to have made a three-point basket since the inception of the three-point line in the 1986-87 season.

With a made three against Tulsa, Vanderbilt will move to 1,071 consecutive games with a three-pointer.

• The Commodores have had five first-round NBA Draft picks since 2012, the second-most in the SEC in that time span – Darius Garland (5th, Cleveland Cavaliers), Wade Baldwin IV (17th, Memphis Grizzlies), Damian Jones (30th, Golden State Warriors), and John Jenkins (23rd, Atlanta) and Festus Ezeli (30th, Golden State). Garland, Jones, and former standout Luke Kornet (Chicago Bulls) are all active players in the NBA.

• Memorial Gym is the SEC’s oldest facility, built in 1952. The Commodores are 807-235 all-time in the building.